A 16-year-old American has become an overnight multimillionaire after winning the inaugural Fortnite World Cup in New York on Monday morning, Australian time.

Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf dominated the World Cup final in front of thousands at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and millions more watching online, to win the solo competition and pocket $US3 million ($4.3 million) for his efforts.

It is the biggest prize ever won at an esports tournament and is more than what the winners of Wimbledon, the Australian Open and French Open tennis tournaments like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty earn.

The total prize pool of $US30 million was also a record for an e-sports tournament.

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“Words can’t even explain it right now. I’m just so happy,” Giersdorf said. “Everything I’ve done, the grind, it’s all paid off. It’s just insane.”

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Second place player Psalm won $US1.8 million and third place player EpikWhale won $US1.2 million, both are American.

The World Cup finals were played in the “Battle Royale” mode, where 100 competitors are dropped onto a shrinking map and fight for survival, which is the same last-man-standing game played daily by players around the world.

Fortnite is the world’s most popular video game, with 250 million users. Over 40 million people attempted to qualify for the Fortnite World Cup but only 200 made it to New York (100 solo players and 50 duos).

In each the solo and duos finals players competed in six Battle Royale games across the afternoon, earning points for eliminations and the place in which they finished.

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Bugha won the first of six games on Monday, and continued to place near the top of the next five games while accumulating eliminations.

He said he knew he’d won near the end of the final game.

“Well pretty much I got to centre zone after getting like a llama [supplies package] so it was pretty much just sealed from there,” he said.

It was a tough day for the three Australians in the field with Sozmann (68th), Cat (95th) and Twins (96th) struggling to make an impact. Still, all competitors who made it to New York were awarded $US50,000.

The previous day the in the duos competion, the relatively unknown Australian duo of Serpennt and Hype finished a remarkable 18th out of 50 teams.